Medical people have long appreciated the necessity of restraining the movement of an injured person, particularly one having spinal injuries. For these reasons cervical stabilizing devices utilizing a support board are commonly used to restrain the injured person, particularly during emergency transporting for medical care. The injured person is conventionally strapped to the board with head constraining apparatus also attempting to hold the head in place. The need for head immobilization in many cases is most important, as any single excessive movement can result in paralysis or even death of the injured person.
One form of head restraining device or immobilizer uses a U-shaped pillow that wraps around the head from the top to the two sides. Straps extended from the under side of the board through holes in the board wrap around the sides of the pillow and over the face area of the injured person. This restrains the head from lifting off the board but yet does not prohibit head rotation as the pillows are somewhat compressible. U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,748 issued July 23, 1977 to Steven E. Winner shows a similar type device, except that the pillow comes from the underside of the head and around the sides, where straps again overwrap the face area of the injured party.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,923 illustrates upstanding braces adjusted to snug against the sides of the injured person's head. Moreover, a sling type device supported from the brace underlies the person's chin to complete the restrain. However, the braces act against only the top of the head and provide little lateral restrain of the lower chin area of the head so that in fact the person's head can be moved laterally.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,268 utilizes a support board with a number of straps designed to overlie the side and face areas of the person's head, generally in the area of the forehead and chin. However this type of support does not prevent rotation of the head.